This came from a comment to one of our posts, but it is much to interesting to leave burried there.
Chase has been reading a lot of Kafka lately. Especially, the Castle, and they’re inspired!: There are lots of people caught in a terrible loop of Chase “losing Documentation” and making people continually re-send in forms for an MHA even after they are appoved for one by the gov’t. So we had a Chase bank mortgage specialist at a Chase bank fax all our forms for us but Chase still claims they didn’t receive all the required information and then demanded even more information not asked for on the application. Since we own and live in a duplex we must now send them proof we do not have not formed a homeowners association with our housemates, for example. But the real test of their devious cleverness is a scam based on their own bank statement paperwork. Please admire its Kafka-esque brilliance. On Chase bank statements they leave the last page “left intentionally blank” but they do not number this last page. For example, a Chase account may have 6 pages and all the pages say, i.e., 1 of 6, 2 of 6, but page 6, the blank one, is not numbered 6 of 6. we have been continually turned down for an MHA because we are not sending them, Chase- holder of our mortgage and the bank where we have our accounts- complete bank statements even though we do send them that 6th page. Since it doesn’t say 6 of 6 they claim our application isn’t complete and make us start over from the very beginning. Going on Month 7. Evidently that’s nothing, most people who have tried have been trying for twice this long. There is one recorded incidence of Chase approving an MHA but it was too late and the house was already in foreclosure…
Anyone see the movie Brazil? That is just brilliant, don’t number your statements properly so that anyone sending them in as proof of a bank statement will have an incomplete statement. Brilliant!
This article from back in January 2009 quotes Chase as saying that it had planned to modify $1.1 trillion on loans and Chase could now be considered the most loan modification friendly lender in the country.
Well, we all know it didn’t work out that way, but if you want definitive proof, just read the comments to that article. Even now, almost 18 months later, people feel compelled to dispel the myth that Chase is loan mod friendly by sharing their Chase loan mod horror stories in the comments.
Chase may call them homeownership centers, but they are more aptly called foreclosure prevention offices. Well their latest one is in the San Francisco Bay Areas East Bay region which has been rife with foreclosures for a good two years. Why so late to the party? The question remains whether Chase is truly committed to working with people facing foreclosure of whether their move is simply a political one.
Cindy reports:
Trying since April 2009 for home loan mod.. made my payments.. did everything they asked.. and now on June 23, 2010.. my property of 25 plus years will be sold at auction…i’m fighting this.. but after reading your letters.. i think this is what they do.. i also.. submitted paper..after paper.. call after call.. and now no one i’ve spoke with is there.. and they can’t find papers.. or say i didn’t send papers..
What can you do ??
We’ve reported this same exact scenario many times. What is still an open question is whether Chase is doing this on purpose or because they are inept and just can’t seem to get their act together.
I haven’t found the data to back this up, but according to this post over at chasehomefinancesucks.com, Chase started out approving 106,000 trial modifications in the first four months of the governments program, and in the eight months since, only 86,000.
Jonathan started trying to get a loan modification (then called a loan workout) back in April of 2008. Even before the official government programs started in 2009, Chase couldn’t get on the ball fast enough and had him resubmit his paperwork because it was out-of-date before they were done reviewing it.
What followed was a two-year odyssey of repeated refiling of paperwork, leaving messages and not being able to get a hold of Chase employees, being told to wait, racking up extra fees, and the constant threat of foreclosure.
I have said this before and I will say it again: Assuming fraud wasn’t involved, there is nothing wrong with Chase wanting to hold people accountable to the commitments they have made. What is so troubling is their lack of clear process, clear messages, and the slightest inkling that they know what they are doing.
The Making Home Affordable Program just released its latest report on loan modifications with some astounding information. Our good friends Chase ranked near the absolute bottom of the banks listed for percentage of trial modifications converted to permanent ones, with an amazingly low rate of 22%. Said another way, if you are currently in a trial loan modification under the HAMP program you have a less than one in four chance of being converted to a permanent modification. This doesn’t include all the trial and tribulations of getting a trial modification going in the first place, such has having to repeatedly submit documents to Chase because they lose them, misplace them, or simply won’t acknowledge having received them, and then waiting for months to get approved.
Another lawsuit calling out Chase for bad behavior. This time related to the practice of telling homeowners to stop making mortgage payments so they will quality for a loan modification:
JPMorgan Chase instructed homeowners to stop making mortgage payments, as that was the only way to be considered for a loan modification, then repossessed their house when they followed the bank’s advice, a couple claims in Federal Court.
The process seems to go like this:
1. Chase recommends stopping payments to qualify for a loan modification
2. Chase approves a trial modification.
3. Chase works in parallel on foreclosure actions
4. Chase denies permanent modification after an extended trial modification and then demands all missed payments in a lump sum or they will foreclose, or Chase skips this step and just forecloses.
Bad bad Chase, Foreclosure, Ineptitude, Loan modification | admin June 12, 2010 | 
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